Preserve Unowned Work

CHANGE-PRESERVE-UNOWNED-WORK

Summary

Treat nearby edits from users, agents, generators, or earlier changes as outside your ownership unless the task says otherwise. Adapting around them protects parallel work and context.

Rule

Preserve unowned work.

Why

A working tree can contain edits from the user, another agent, generated state, or an earlier in-progress change. Reformatting, reverting, or moving that work because it is nearby violates ownership and can destroy context outside the task.

Helps

Protects parallel work and keeps the current diff accountable for only the files it owns.

Limits

If unowned work blocks validation or editing, inspect it and adapt. Ask before removing, reverting, or rewriting work that is not clearly part of your task.

Agent Instruction

Preserve unowned work because a working tree can contain edits from the user, another agent, generated
state, or an earlier in-progress change.

Mechanisms

Supported by jj status, path-scoped diffs, fresh jj changes for new tasks, ownership notes in handoffs, and review of touched files before finalizing.